Today marks three years since I started this blogging adventure, and my relationship with it has grown quite complex. Many bloggers fall into one of two categories: those who start with gusto, posting every day for a month before disappearing forever, or those who truly have it together, and post consistenly at least twice a week for years on end.

I fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t post every day, but I don’t leave it to collect dust for months either. I have found great joy in writing here and sharing the absurdities of life that are important to me. But, let’s be frank, this is not without effort. Regular blogging isn’t for the casual journaler, and no one realizes this until they’ve been doing it for a year and they’ve run out of things to say. THEN the work begins.

The tricky little catch-22 about blogging is that it’s a hobby, but it’s a hobby that involves other people. Most hobbies are done alone, with knitting needles or scrapbooks or music as the only audience noting how often you participate in your hobby. But with blogging, you are inviting other people to enjoy your hobby alongside you, and when you don’t, they get angry.

That’s the pain point — we bloggers love nothing more than having faithful readers, but it’s those same readers who crack the whip when I’m being lazy…which is often. “Do you know it’s been two weeks?” they ask. Yes, yes, I have felt every one of those fourteen days, I reply. But I am not making time for it or I don’t have a topic or I’m just being lazy! And they look at me like, ugh, pull it together.

Which, I’ll add, they have every right to do. And I’m grateful, and that’s why I’m keeping at it. I love this work, and I love my readers, and I love when they crack the whip. So thank you, dear reader, for reading and for coming back for more.